Platform: Andrea Mullaney gets up with the birds – and is underwhelmed

Published on Monday 6 September 2010 22:04

After great cost and even greater media speculation, the nation – or the early-rising part of it – tuned in yesterday to see if a dumpy bloke and an angular woman could generate any sexual chemistry at 6am.

After the bland success of The One Show, ITV will be hoping that Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakley's new show Daybreak, which replaced GMTV, can recapture their "will they, won't they?" dynamic, even though everyone knows by now that, obviously, they never will.

With so much riding on them, the pair seemed nervous. "Day is happening!" trilled Bleakley, fulfilling her remit to never say anything interesting, but in a nice way, while wearing a sensible dress. "We've spent good money bringing you this view," announced Chiles, fulfilling his to be down-to-earth while wearing a suit with no tie.

The view from the big window behind them was of London, but before day actually broke, the darkness outside gave the studio an ominous, half-awake look, which warmed up as gradually as the show. After proudly giving viewers a tour of the set, the pair stayed huddled together for warmth on a big, curving purple sofa.

While Bleakley perched on the edge, leaning forward to read the autocue as if she hadn't put her contact lenses in yet, Chiles declared his intention to have a chat with the sports reporter, "because that's more of a man thing", leaving his co-presenter to add limply: "I'll just sit here and do my nails."

Though it runs for two hours longer than The One Show, Daybreak has the same random mix of items.There was an odd exclusive "revealing" that people are still owed money from the Farepak Christmas hampers collapse of four years ago, a sad story about a woman reunited with the children she thought were dead for 34 years, a child driving a toy car around the studio and Tony Blair popping in for a gentle five-minute chat in which he divulged that he votes Labour.

"It's been an eventful morning," summed up Adrian, inaccurately. "But we survived." Doubtless they will be back to exchange grumpy remarks and polite giggles for many more dawns to come.